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Web Marketing to Seniors

Support your sales efforts with web-centric marketing

March 10, 2010

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In this issue...

-- Support Your Home Health Sales Process with Web-Centric Marketing

-- Creating a Senior-Friendly Website

-- Increase Your Income Selling to Bank Trust Officers and Other Trusted Advisors

-- The Academy for Private Duty Home Care Is Coming To Seattle Washington!

-- Stop Guessing and Start Knowing!

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome Kyley,

...to Home Health Care Today! the leading electronic newsletter for CEOs and executives of Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies and Hospices.

Home Health Care Today is brought to you as a service of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. We work with Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies that want to grow the number of medicare referrals that turn into admissions, and with agencies that want to grow their private pay business.

Support Your Home Health Sales Process with Web-Centric Marketing

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In the last issue of Home Health Care Today, we discussed the how to get measurable results with a focused sales and marketing process. As we said, then, the two most frequently used and most effective methods for bringing in new Medicare referrals to your home health care agency are networking in the community, and making direct sales calls on high probability referral sources.

Our research also shows that you need to support your networking and selling with two to four secondary marketing strategies used to keep your name and marketing message in front of referral sources in between sales calls.

Number four on our list of the Top Ten Techniques is your web site. My son, Jason, coined the term "Web-centric marketing and recruiting," to define a process of using your web site as the place to house your marketing message, and then use other marketing strategies to drive people to your web site.

In designing and building your web site, it's important to keep your audience in mind. Since you are selling home care services to aging baby boomers and senior citizens, it's important to understand their web viewing issues.

For more help on that, we turn to Mike Sullivan, founder of 50-Plus Communication Consulting in Charlotte, NC. Mike is a former bank officer who now focuses on ways to communicate effectively with baby boomers. Since the children of your patients are baby boomers, this information is for you.

Mike is also the co-author with Stephen Tweed of our eBook, Increase Your Income Selling to Bank Trust Officers and Other Trusted Advisors.

View the Bank Trust Officers eBook.

Creating a Senior-Friendly Website

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By Michael P. Sullivan
50-Plus Communications Consulting
Charlotte NC
www.graymoney.biz

Who creates and maintains your website? What is the person's age? How much contact does the person have with your target market, current or potential residents or homeowners?

Do you understand the importance of using a website-creator who understands how the onset of midlife changes affects people's worldviews, values and aspirations? Are you aware of the physical changes occurring with aging especially with vision, the key to web presentations.

We ask these questions when we train associates of companies seeking to improve web communications with those in their mid-50s and older.

If your website is not delivering the number of hits you want, nor the quality of leads, you might want to take a look at improving this powerful sales tool. If it is not delivering, then you need to look at some basics. With some tweaking, your website may deliver far more positive sales leads and improve closings.

A key factor for companies targeting senior adults is the age and understanding of the target demographic market by those creating the message. Generally, webmasters and web developers are on the younger end of the age scale -- 20s to mid-30s. It's easy to see why technology-sophistication resides with those who have grown up with increasing levels of computer savvy, and that translates to younger adults.

Creating and managing seniors-friendly sites is rare for younger adults, especially in a youthful culture that avoids aging issues. Your success rests with training web developers to understand that adults over 50 think and act much differently than their younger counterparts, and translate that learning to websites.

Generally, the job of webmasters is to turn words and art into Internet sites that people are attracted to and can use.

This column and the one to follow next month are written to help management of retirement homes and retirement communities create more effective websites describing their property.

Marketing communications, especially on the website, are more effective and better sales and service is provided to older adults if the creators of the materials are more knowledgeable and sensitive to changes occurring with aging. One easy way to help them understand is to have them read some books on the aging process.

Let's start with a key physical issue, the changes in vision with people of age. Vision decline is one of the most obvious signs of aging.

Each individual is born with some specific level of visual functional capacity, encompassing all attributes of vision -- distance, depth perception, peripheral vision. Different individuals start out at different levels. All individuals begin to lose some of that inborn capacity by the early 20s.

By age 60, the average person has less than 25% of that original functional capacity -- and the decline continues throughout the rest of life. About 90 percent of people over age 60 require vision correction of one kind or another.

What are some vision difficulties an older person experiences? They include seeing near objects; loss of depth perception; difficulty with external glare and generally a narrow field of vision.

Remember that older adults grew up as book and newspaper readers. They still retain the habits of print readers. Printed material rather than audio and video tend to be the most credible source of information for senior adults. They are much more comfortable reading straight through a text rather than linking to other explanatory material.

Here are some to-dos:

• Use simple typefaces those that are not condensed such as Times New Roman.
• Avoid using novelty and decorative typefaces which can be distracting.
• Choose typefaces based on their legibility. We suggest 12 or 14 point size for body text, and larger for headlines.
• Use medium or boldface type.
• Avoid those too bold or exceptionally light because they are more difficult to read.

About the Author:
Michael P. Sullivan, President, 50-Plus Communications Consulting, Charlotte North Carolina, (704) 554-7863. provides consulting and training for staff at retirement facilities, home care agencies, financial services and health care organizations. His book, 101 Easy Ways to Increase Business with Boomerplus Clients is available on his website, www.graymoney.biz.

Contact Mike Sullivan

Increase Your Income Selling to Bank Trust Officers and Other Trusted Advisors

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Millions of elderly and disabled individuals have one or more chronic conditions which make it difficult to function. They need regular assistance with the activities of daily living.

A small, but rapidly growing, number of these elderly Americans have accumulated significant wealth. They have called on the services of a Bank Trust Department or other trusted advisor to help them manage their money and arrange for personal services.

That's where you come in. As the owner, administrator, or manager of a Home Care company, you can dramatically increase your income by learning to sell your services to these Bank Trust Officers and other Trusted Advisers. Up until now, that process has been a mystery to most home care leaders.

Now, Thanks to one of America's leading experts in selling to older Americans, and one of home care's leading Private Duty experts, you can master the mystery of selling to Bank Trust Officers.

Order - Increase Your Income Selling to Bank Trust Officers

The Academy for Private Duty Home Care Is Coming To Seattle Washington!

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Join us on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Seattle, Washington for The Academy for Private Duty Home Care.

The morning of April 8th, you can join dozens of other owners and CEOs of successful private duty home care companies for a continental breakfast, starting at 8:00 a.m. and then meet with us at 8:30 a.m. for the beginning of the Academy.

There will be a break both before and after lunch, with the mid-day meal starting around 12:00 pm. We will rejoin immediately after lunch until 4:00 p.m.

During this Private Duty Academy you'll receive all of the strategies and insights you need to grow your private duty home care business.

A special thank you to the Home Care Association of Washington, our home care association sponsor for the Academy for Private Duty Home Care in Seattle, WA!

If you're a member of Home Care Association of Washington OR want to become a member and receive their member's special discounted pricing for the Academy, give Wendi Lynagh, Executive Director a call at 425-775-8120 or visit www.hcaw.org.

In addition to the HCAW's membership discount pricing, you also receive an additional discount when 2 or more employees from the same company attend!

You may also call our offices at 502-339-0653 and ask for Julie Raque, Client Services Coordinator, if you have questions or need more information.

Register Today for Seattle Washington's Academy for Private Duty Home Care!

Stop Guessing and Start Knowing!

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By Mark Kleier
Director of Marking
Leading Home Care

Just the other day I was on a mission. I wanted to find out where our clients come from, which made me wonder, where do your clients come from? The amazing answer to that question is that much of the time we probably don't know! And let me tell you why. It's because like many other businesses, we forget to ask. Why? Because let's face it, there are countless ways to market your business and you probably use a combination of techniques or programs.

Take a look at the number of books out there. (and if you are interested go to http://www.leadinghomecare.com/store/ books/index.html to find a few we have written)

There are other programs from web sites and radio advertising to calendars, vehicle graphics, personalized chocolates, and super bowl ads. And you know what? Any of them could work to some degree. If you keep trying out everything, and tracking nothing, you could literally go on forever, never knowing whether you are doing the right thing! And with the vast majority of businesses doing just that, you have nothing but mountains of wasted marketing efforts every year!

So, let's start keeping a log book by the phone. For every new inquiry or referral that calls in, ask them "How did you find out about us?" and then write the name of the customer, the date, and how they found out about you. If it's a personal referral, ask the person who they were referred by, and note that down as well. Also, if they are a word-of-mouth referral, send a thank you note to the person who made the referral.

The other question you need to ask at some point during the first telephone conversation is, "Where else have you heard about us?" One of the things we know from our research is that most new clients or referral sources that call you probably heard your name at least two places.

Every month, tabulate how many leads you got from each of your referral, advertising and marketing activities and concentrate on the ones that are working. Start thinking about eliminating the ones that aren't working.

For anything that you are investing money in, whether it is an advertising campaign or some other type of marketing program, you will now know what return you are getting on your investment. You'll be able to identify what to keep in your budget for the future. With the things you decide to eliminate, try something new, and once again, track everything on an ongoing basis.

The simplest ideas are the best ones.

I can guarantee that if you diligently monitor your marketing efforts every day, they will help you grow your business. In no time at all, you'll have a marketing plan that works, and a much healthier business. With that in mind, focus on the things that work, keep trying new things, and always track your results.

About the Author

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Stephen Tweed, CSP, is Chairman and CEO of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. For over 25 years he has been a recognized leader in strategy and leadership development for home care companies and associations that want to grow and get ready for the future. He is the author or co-author of five books, four of which were written specifically for the home care industry. He has served on the boards of directors of three not-for-profit home care agencies, and has served as interim President & CEO of a $25 million home care company.

Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of a 39 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis

Grow Your Business, Get Ready For The Future

Permission to Reproduce

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Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Home Health Care Today. Copyright 2009 Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

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